


Comeback (the Where You Once Belonged remix)

by Gabrielle



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 10:16:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2384696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabrielle/pseuds/Gabrielle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just when you think you've got it all under control, the sound of someone's laughter takes you right back to where you never wanted to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comeback (the Where You Once Belonged remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Comebacks](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/76208) by M. Scott Eiland. 



> This was written for Round Four of [The Circle of Friends Remix](http://cof_remix.livejournal.com/). It is a remix of [Comebacks](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/212253/1/Comebacks) by M. Scott Eiland.

Comeback (the Where You Once Belonged remix)  
  
  
  
Willow might have all kinds of book smarts, but – as Faith has always known – books don’t mean jack shit when you’re faced with the muzzle of a gun… or the fist of a Slayer ( _a_ Slayer, who should have been _the_ Slayer, only when has Faith ever gotten what she’s entitled to out of this fucked up world?). So now Nancy Drew here gets a lesson it looks like she never got in school. The lesson that you don’t piss in the big kids’ sandbox. The lesson that mousy little goody-two-shoes types are better off hiding under the covers at night instead of being out here in the real world (the hard and dirty, cold and cruel world) where they don’t belong.  
  
Time for a pop quiz. What do you do when you’re punched by someone a whole lot stronger and better than you?   
  
Faith sneers as she stands over the girl trying to figure out which way is up so she can maybe get there. “You hurt me, I hurt you. I’m just a little more efficient about it.” Take that, you stuck-up bookworm.  
  
Maybe the blow scrambled the bitch’s brains because she actually smarts off right back. “Aw, and I just thought you didn’t have a comeback.”  
  
Who the hell does she think she is? Faith has a comeback all right, and she slides her hand over it. That’s right, she’s got the sharpest tongue of all, courtesy of the biggest, baddest Daddy any girl ever had. She pulls it out, letting Buffy’s pathetic little sidekick see just how dangerous it would be for her to keep running that mouth of hers.   
  
Besides, it’s Faith’s turn, and she’s smarter than any of them have ever given her credit for. Time to show just how much she’s watched… and learned. So she starts off Afterschool Special-style, acting like she gives a crap about whether Willow ever actually liked her.  
  
Like she gives a crap if _any_ of them ever liked her.  
  
Well, except for the one who did. Time to break out another kind of knife. “So, how did you feel when you found out I did Xander?” Yes! That drew blood. Little Miss Mouth can’t think of anything to say now. That’s okay, because Faith can – and it’s all about the difference between the big girls who can ride the ride and the prissy little prudes who don’t have a clue. “He was just another lay for me,” she purrs, “But for him? He’ll always remember me. Because I was his first. You never forget that.” Ooh, bet that stings, huh, you self-righteous cunt. “How did it feel when you found out I had him? That I got what you were too scared to take for yourself? Or maybe you tried and he didn’t want it? Yeah, bet that’s it. Well, I sure didn’t have that problem. Your boy was all over me, like I was what he’d been waiting for his whole life.” Okay, now’s the point where Willow’s lip is supposed to be quivering and tears should be hanging on the edge of those cow-eyes of hers, but instead she’s completely blank. Is Faith losing her touch? She tries twisting the knife again. “It must just kill you, me getting there first.”  
  
Finally, she gets a response…  
  
… but it’s not what she was looking for.  
  
The little bitch is laughing. Laughing! She’s laughing at Faith.  
  
It’s the one thing she can’t take, can’t defend herself against, can’t shrug off the way hunger and drunk Mom passed out on the couch and no toys and second best have always been shrugged off (the way _Faith_ has always been shrugged off).  
  
Willow’s the one who’s talking now, babbling something about Xander’s crappy taste in women (and what does that say about _you_ , bitch?), but the words get lost in the roar of memory – all that other laughter she’s heard, all the people who’ve hurt her, mocked her, made her feel small… made her feel like nothing.  
  
 _”I’m gonna tell Mom.” Seven years old. Not old enough yet to realize that Mom cares more about the guy who pays for her booze than she ever will about some hazard of the game she popped out from between her legs, but old enough to get a taste of what her Mom likes from a man way too old and big for the body of a little girl to take – at least not without blood and tears and screams caught by a large, meaty hand._  
  
Funny that now she thinks that hand was a lot like Angel’s… and she can still hear that fucking pervert laughing after all these years.   
  
The same way he laughed when she tried to tell her Mom.  
  
The same way he laughed when he did it again.  
  
And again.  
  
 _”I really like you, Faith.”  
  
She’s thirteen now and it’s the first time she’s ever said yes. He’s older, but he’s nice to her, taking it slow and sweet, so she lets him inside, lies down, closes her eyes… and opens them to find his friends standing there – watching like it’s some show.  
  
High fives all around. One of them waves a twenty in the air, says something like “You won, dude.” She tries to get away, but the boy inside her keeps pounding away and his friends are laughing. He’s laughing. They’re all laughing. All she can do is wait for him to finish and hope the rest don’t want to take turns.  
  
Hope. Just another four letter word._  
  
She can still hear them laughing, too.  
  
 _”You’re pathetic, you know. The most pitiful excuse for a Slayer I’ve ever seen.” Those words ring in her ears as she freezes – too scared, too green, too *something* to save her Watcher.  
  
To save the only person in her whole miserable life who’s ever cared about her.  
  
When it’s over, all that’s left is Kakistos’s laughter._  
  
She still hears _that_ laughter.   
  
_”Psych.” The click of chains coming undone and the easy smile of the golden girl who’s never suffered once, not ever in her whole perfect life. It’s all been a trick. Angel losing his soul… acting like he thought she was better…acting…that’s all it was.  
  
That’s all it’s ever been.  
  
“You played me!” Faith screams and she’s yelling it at the whole world._  
  
Buffy and Angel’s laughter mixes with Willow’s laughter mixes with all the other laughter and she wants to scream, to put her hands over her ears and curl up in the corner and cry and for someone to come and rescue her, someone who can make all the laughter go away, but weakness isn’t something she will ever show. Besides – she’s Faith and she can rescue herself. She’s been doing it ever since she figured out the rules in this rigged game of a life she’s living.  
  
So she smacks Willow once more, wishing she could hit them all - _slay_ them all – but willing to settle for the target now getting up groggy from the floor just begging for another taste.  
  
Then it happens.  
  
Someone’s here to rescue her after all. “Girls, I hope I don’t have to separate you two.” The Mayor in full effect, sounding official, and she gets it. He’s not criticizing her; he’s _reminding_ her – reminding her that she’s not all alone in a world full of people who see her as something beneath them anymore. She’s not second best. She’s not the afterthought living in a crappy motel. She’s a Slayer, soon to be _the_ Slayer. She’s the one at the right hand of the man who’s going to _own_ this whole fucking town, hell – maybe the whole _world_ \- and when it’s all over and Buffy is finally suffering along with all her little friends, Faith will still have a fancy apartment and a Playstation and a Daddy. A better Daddy than she ever dreamed existed back when she was a little girl and still knew how to dream. “I got someone,” she says, finally - _finally_ \- feeling the confidence she’s been playing at all these years. “I got him.” The Mayor smiles at her and it happens. Just for a moment, but it happens.  
  
All the laughter is gone.  
  
  
  
The End.


End file.
